CHICOPEE – Benjamin Pineda and six other people flew to the area from Miami to work shoveling roofs for a Louisiana company that promised them a couple weeks of work.

Because the weather broke, Pineda, 44, got only one day’s shoveling with Craft Solutions Inc. of Denham Springs, La. It is working with Enterprises Institute of Springfield.

Corey A. Hovland, Craft’s western operations manager, flew to the area Thursday night from Denver to make sure a work crew of about 100 people got paid after the local supervisor left Wednesday after only paying a few people.

“The problem is going to be fixed today. All the compensation is going to be paid in full,” Hovland said Friday.

However, for Pineda and others who got only one day’s work that may not be enough to get back home.

“If you say you want a (plane) ticket right away they don’t sell it to you for $100, they want more,” Pineda said in the lobby of the Burnett Road Econo Lodge, where Craft put up the workers.

Pineda said he now needs work in the area so he can make enough money to get back home.

“I spent my last little bit of money coming here,” Sean M. Kendrick, 24, of Albany, N.Y., said. He and a friend are due two days pay each, but he said they spent about $600 getting here and on living expenses.

Some of the laid-off workers, who also got only a day or so of work after coming here from around the country, said they believe Craft should pay them more than what is owed to compensate them for travel expenses.

Ruben J. Warner, 33, of Danville, Vt., said people learned of the jobs from an ad on craigslist.org and were told they could expect at least three to four 7-day weeks of work at $18 an hour.

“For a lot of people around the country who are out of work that is very intriguing,” Warner, who has done odd jobs for the last three months, said.

Hovland said whether the workers get any more than what they are owed is a question for his company’s headquarters in Louisiana. He said Enterprises hired Craft with the understanding there would be two to three weeks of work here, but the weather changed.

“I can’t control the weather,” Hovland said.

He explained that his company thought it had a person they could trust in the supervisor who left Wednesday without paying everyone in full.

“It is not a practice for us to leave people stranded,” Thomas D. McAlister, Crafts’ manager for the project in Louisiana, said. “I told my guy on site whatever you need to get those people home you do.”

McAlister said the situation is complicated by the fact that the head supervisor who did not want to tell people there was no more work for them and left the area took pay records with him.

Although the company has worked with police to locate him, McAlister said his company has taken the step of working with its customers to reconstruct employees’ hours so everyone could get paid Friday.

“He (the supervisor) left with everyone’s time sheet because he was scared to death somebody was going to hurt him,” McAlister said. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years and this is by far the worst scenario I have been in.”

The company does work around the country, including having done stints at the Pentagon and work cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, according to McAlister.

Chicopee Police Sgt. Jeffrey A. Nadeau said the supervisor has been located and police are making arrangements to meet with him Saturday.

“He did not leave with any money. He took the time records,” Nadeau said.

At this point, the matter is not being treated as a criminal investigation, the police officer said.